MLK audience challenged to 'save our kids'

7:11 PM,
Jan. 19, 2013

Johanna Johnson, left, and Linda Daugherty sing along and dance as the Western Carolina University Choir performs during the 32nd annual MLK Prayer Breakfast Saturday in the Grand Ballroom of the Grove Park Inn.

Written by

Barbara Blake

In a departure from the typical motivational speaker who delivers a template to audience members instructing them what to do next, Tyrone Bledsoe laid out the problems and left the answers in the hands of the listeners.

In his keynote address at the 32nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast at the Grove Park Inn, Bledsoe painted a picture of a generation of boys and young men - primarily African-American - who are being failed by the adults who should be guiding them into successful manhood.

But he didn't tell them how to fix it. Instead, he challenged each audience member to just "do ...